NBC Transmitter (Jan-Nov 1945)

March 1945 TELEVISION GETS READY NBC’s Increased Video Activity Prepares for Top-Flight Postwar Commercial Operations NEW YORK. — With NBC television operations in New York now stepped up to five consecutive evenings on the air, or an average of about 10 hours a week, John F. Royal, NBC vice-president in charge of television, has gone on record with a statement that the new broadcast medium is good enough commercially to go ahead right now. In a recent magazine article, Ro)al declared that television today is as good as, if not better than, radio was in the early 1920’s, when commercial radio first started. Present-day operations of NBC’s New York television outlet, WNBT, give proof that the network is girding itself for widescale television when the war is over. According to Royal, the new medium should he operating as a going medium of information and entertainment within one year after V-E Day. Indicative of the widening scope of NBC television is the recent strengthening of its staff. Reynold R. Kraft, for many years an account executive with the NBC sales department, has been named eastern sales manager for television; and John H. Dodge, formerly associated with NBC Washington, has been moved to New York to become a sales account executive. On the program side, the new year has seen the addition of Don Darcy, who has had a long career in the theatre, to the production staff of NBC television. When 1945 began. Station WNBT was on the air about eight hours a week. Since then, however, a regular Sunday night feature of live programs has been inaugurated, bringing present operations up to 10 hours a week. The station now presents five consecutive evenings of entertainment, Fridays through Tuesdays. Continuing wide appeal has been indicated in the presentation of boxing matches, particularly among servicemen’s hospitals. Friday and Monday nights are devoted to the fights, and Tuesday nights bring viewers live wrestling from St. Nicholas Arena. The Friday night bouts during the winter are broadcast from Madison Square Garden, Monday nights from St. Nicholas Arena— both schedules under the sponsorship of the Gillette Safety Razor Company. In the early j)art of the new year, NBC signed its first contract with a commercial airline concern. Pan American Airways, to present a weekly feature designed to j)romote cultural relationships among the Americas. At the start, the feature will be films, with live talent presented from time to time. Other regular sponsors, besides Gillette and Pan American, include Botany Worsted Mills, Bulova Watch Company, Firestone Tire and Rubber Company and RCA Victor Division of RCA. Concerns that have used the NBC television medium include Gimbel Brothers of Philadelphia, the Aetna Life Affiliated Companies and the Liberty Mutual Life Insurance Company. The first television network saw some expansion toward the end of last year. Monday evening ]jrograms of WNBT have been rebroadcast regularly by the General Electric Company station WRGB for several years; from A})ril 10. 1944. through December 4, 1944. station WPTZ of the Philco Radio and Television Corporation also rebroadcast the Monday evening WNBT programs, thus constituting the third station in this first television netw ork. With the inauguration of regular Sunday evening ‘‘live” talent broadcasts from NBC studio 3-H in Radio City, WNBT has gone in heavily for the j)roduction of mystery dramas. One of the most successful series of live talent j)roductions yet presented was the four-part adaptation of Cornell Woolrich's novel, “The Black Angel.” Adapted and produced for WNBT by NBC television producer Ernest Colling, the novel is a psychological drama and therefore well adapted to the television medium. Briefly, the story involved a woman’s search for a murderer; each of the four episodes portrayed her attempts to track down each of the four possible suspects. Leading roles were portrayed by such well-known stage and radio stars as Karl Swenson, Judith Evelyn, Mary Patton and Richard Keith. So well were these four dramas received that the following two weeks of Sunday night live features were devoted to a television adaptation of A. A. Milne's mystery play, “The Perfect .Mihi.” This production was under the supervision of Edward Sobol, NBC television producer, who also was responsible for the adaptation. Such name stars as P. Kave. Flail Shelton, Marjorie Lord and a host of others were included in these two presentations. On both “The Perfect Alibi” {Continued on po^e 14 i